A Nashville Restaurant is thinking outside the fruit.
Tomatoes are having a renaissance period,” says Tiffani Ortiz, executive chef of revered Music City restaurant The Catbird Seat, where they use more than just the tomato itself. “I’ve been seeing [tomato leaves] at farmers markets all around the country. People are selling tomato leaf-scented candles and soaps. I think people are starting to come around to it a little bit.”
At the restaurant, tomato leaves are plucked off the vine for everything from ceviche to dessert. “A lot of people don’t know that they’re edible,” says Ortiz. “When they were first brought over from Europe, it was thought that tomatoes were actually poisonous.” It’s a myth that lingers for the rest of the plant, which is not only edible but lends herbaceous flavor and verdant color to a dish.
Ortiz and her co-executive chef and husband, Andy Doubrava, source their tomatoes from Nashville Grown and local farms. “We also are lucky enough that we are avid gardeners ourselves, and we actually grow a lot of our tomatoes here at home for the season,” says Ortiz, who adds that in the summertime, Nashville provides an ideal climate for growing tomatoes.
Lost in the Sauce
“My husband [chef Andy Doubrava] likes to make a fermented tomato sauce choron,” Ortiz says. The couple salt blended tomatoes and let them ferment for a couple of days. The choron is typically a blend of the tomato water from that fermentation, caramelized onions, smoked garlic, and cooked rice, used alongside everything from squash to steak to seafood.
A New Leaf
The pair use tomato greens in place of (or alongside) other herbs like cilantro and basil, as well as poblano or jalapeño peppers. “We’ve used the leaves to make aguachile to dress raw fish dishes,” says Ortiz. “We’re looking for bright flavors of other plants that are blooming around the same season. The tomatoes give you a parsley-adjacent flavor in that combination.”
What’s for Dessert?
The chefs blend tomato leaves with milk, cream, and lime juice for something sweet. “We put it in an ice cream maker, and it becomes a scoopable kind of bright green and herbaceous and citrusy sherbet,” says Ortiz. “It’s ice cream-meets-margarita.”
tomato leaf sherbet 
yields
Makes about 2 quarts of base
1⁄4 cup organic light corn syrup
1⁄2 cup whole milk
1⁄2 cup buttermilk
2⁄3 cup fresh lime juice
2 cups fresh tomato leaves
3⁄4 tablespoon ice cream stabilizer or cornstarch
3⁄4 cup organic cane sugar
ice cream machine
blender
ingredients
special equipment
steps
- To a blender, add 1⁄4 cup organic light corn syrup, 1⁄2 cup whole milk, 1⁄2 cup buttermilk, and 2⁄3 cup fresh lime juice.
- Cover with lid and blend at medium speed.
- Slowly add in 2 cups fresh tomato leaves (see note above), loosely packed, 3⁄4 tablespoon ice cream stabilizer or cornstarch, and 3⁄4 cup organic cane sugar on medium speed until fully combined.
- Transfer mixture to standard ice cream machine and spin for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Serve or freeze and store up to 3 months.
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Tate Jacaruso
Tate Jacaruso loves celebrating Southern food, travel, and culture as associate editor at the Local Palate. She is based in Charleston and is currently making her way through every bowl of pasta and oyster on the half shell in town. Her work has appeared in Charleston Living Magazine and CHStoday.
